Senorita Shepherd Super Show at South of England Champs

Newly recruited Thanet AC athlete Maia Shepherd showed some Spanish flair as she dazzled her way to winning the South of England Championships at Horspath last weekend.

The U17 athlete competed in the U17 women’s heptathlon where she recorded personal bests in all 7 events on route to the gold medal.

Maia Shepherd at Oxford ready to take on the South of England Combined Events. Photo By: Darren Hatton.

Day 1 started with the 80m hurdles where she was competing in this for the first time crossing the finish line in 13.40s. The high jump was next where she cleared a height of 1.39m before moving on to the shot putt. Here she threw 7.75m to keep the momentum going. Last on day 1 was her maiden start over the 200m. Training had been going very well for this, but into a headwind with the driving rain it was a tough race so the time of 29.15s was a very solid effort.

Maia Shepherd at her first U17 Combined Events Heptathlon. Photos By: Darren Hatton.

Day 2 started with the long jump where she put together a very competitive series of jumps. 4.75m was her best jump of the day which took her into her favourite 2 events. Back in Spain Maia was the Balearic champion in the javelin (and Hexathlon – 6 events) and was ranked number 3 in the 600m in the Balearic region so when she threw a whopping 29.90m in the javelin she was desperate to get her teeth into her first ever 800m. In another downpour she ran a fantastic 2:25.61 to finish on 3774pts and claim the top spot on the rostrum.

Maia on the podium getting her gold medal and with Father, Dominic along with Thanet AC coach, Darren Hatton. Photos By: Darren Hatton.

Head coach Darren Hatton said “It was lovely to see Maia compete this weekend. She is an athlete with a very bright future, and it is clear to see why so many individual event coaches back in Spain are trying to bring her into their coaching set up, but she needs to keep persevering with multi events as she is still so young.

Her dad, Dominic Shepherd, was a dear friend and competitor of mine on the International stage and he has done a brilliant job with Maia along with the other coaches back home. He was thrilled to see Maia competing in the UK and will be looking to do so a lot more in the future.”

• Darren Hatton